Neo Gym

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The past two weeks have just flown by and it is hard to believe that today is the first day of December. The weather has been typical fall weather and the fact that it is cool has not diminished the desire of the valencianos to sit outdoors on the terrace of some café or restaurant and have a coffee or a beer and a snack. Being a wuss from Los Angeles, I prefer to be indoors.

I was at Neo Gym yesterday at 10:00 to get my routine and instruction on how to use the various machines that head been prescribed for me on my first round of exercises. I have been reluctant to use machines in Spain because, in the past, I found that they would not accommodate someone of my height very well. The good news is that the machines here easily accommodate my height and weight. My routine will be ten minutes of cardio followed by a series of ten exercises that I will do twice. I will end my workout with another ten minutes of cardio and five stretching exercises. Here is a link to some of the photos of Neo Gym. As you will see it is very modern and kept in excellent shape. http://www.neogymcenter.com/fotosinstalacion.htm I will need to supplement my gym exercises with several exercises at home using the rubber resistance that we brought here from LA. I was back home at 11:15, in time to accompany Susan on her search for a place to get her nails done.

We had passed by a nail place last week and on our way we stopped off at a lamp store in search of a lamp for Susan’s nightstand. We saw a couple of possibilities, but the prices were more than we wanted to spend on what should be a utilitarian lamp rather than a piece of art. We continued on our way, found the nail place and Susan made an appointment for today, Thursday. We walked a bit more and then headed home where Susan would be preparing lunch.

Susan made us a salad that was studded with walnuts, dried cranberries and blue cheese. After such a great beginning we turned our attention to two steaks that we grilled on top of the stove, some sautéed mushrooms and some over crisped potatoes. What a great meal. It was so great that it deserved a siesta afterwards.

We headed out again to get some exercise and continue our search for a lamp. We stopped off at the Nespresso store and picked up some more coffee. From there we made our way to the Corte Inglés. The Corte Inglés occupies three separate building on Calle Colón and we entered the one that is furthest away from City Hall. We learned that lamps were sold at the store that was next in line. When we exited the store we took a look at the square that sits outside the department store. As it turns out, it is a very historic space.

It is historic because there is a remnant of a column that was part of an arch that was the entrance to the judería here in Valencia. Off in a corner there is a plaque with no words to describe what you are looking at, but it is a representation, map-like in nature, of the area that was occupied by the judería. This plaza is also historic because it was one of the two spaces that the Inquisition used for their auto de Fe where heretics would be burned at the stake for all to see. Susan took a couple of photos and we continued on our way.

We did see a couple of lamps that were interesting, but we decided that we would continue our search elsewhere. Having made that decision we headed back home and stopped off near the house to get a cup of coffee. We passed up the outdoor terrace and opted to sit at the counter. The rest of our day was uneventful. We read, watched some TV and had a very light supper. Susan had cooked up some lentils earlier in the day and added them to the turkey soup that she had made and frozen last week. I had a yoghurt because earlier in the evening I had snacked on some pistachios and a beer. We were in bed by 11:00.